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Q & A: Preparing for Windows 7

By J.d. Biersdorfer August 5, 2009 8:43 pmAugust 5, 2009 8:43 pm

Q.

My computer is a few years old. Will it be able to handle Windows 7 if I decide to upgrade my operating system?

A.

According to a page on Microsoft’s site the most basic requirements for computers to run Windows 7 include a gigabyte of memory and a processor running at a speed of at least one gigahertz. The machine also needs 16 gigabytes of free space on the hard drive. (Computers running 64-bit processors need two gigabytes of memory and 20 gigabytes of drive space.)

Microsoft has a free program you can use to see if your hardware is up to the challenge. The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta is available here.

If your computer is running Windows Vista, upgrading to Windows 7 when it arrives this fall shouldn’t be too difficult. You should also be able to easily upgrade a Vista machine to Windows 7 without having to move your data somewhere else in order to install the new system.

Windows XP computers are probably not going to be as easy to upgrade. Although Windows 7 includes an Easy Transfer program to help you get your files moved, you will still likely need an external drive to park your data while you wipe the drive on the computer and do a clean installation of Windows 7. After that, you need to copy your files back to the PC and then reinstall all your programs.

Depends on the level of support. “Mainstream Support” has already expired in April. “Extended Support” for all versions is currently scheduled to end in 5 years, in Aug. 2014. (That date has been extended a couple of times for non-XP Pro versions, so it’s not set in stone.) Exciting details here:

I have tested the Windows 7 Release Candidate on several older systems, including a six year old laptop, and have found it runs surprisingly fast, and installs cleanly. It does a good job finding drivers (provided the system is online) for hardware components, such as older network cards and graphics cards, as well. It does this by examining the processor the card uses, rather than the chipset. As far as what Microsoft calls a “clean install” is concerned, the Win7 installer doesn’t remove files from the disk, but saves (as Windows Vista does) the existing file structure under a different directory name, so nothing is lost. This applies to Windows XP as well as to Windows Vista, depending on what type of installation it finds – Win7 requires a clean install on some OEM versions of Windows Vista as well.

If you have been using Xp for 9 years and have never had to backup and reinstall anything, maybe its time you do it??? a fresh start never hurt. and maybe its time to buy upgraded versions of your programs too.

I’m sick and tired of these constant Microsoft so-called upgrades. What changes are the desktop and perhaps methods of accessing programs, but I don’t see a huge benefit.

In our very, very small business, we have 5 computers. Everyone is on XP (either Home or Pro). XP has worked well for us (not that any MS program works as well as Apple – and I’d gladly move us to Apple if the expense wasn’t prohibitive and the fact that some of the programs we use all the time wouldn’t work on an Apple OS).

I’m mad as hell with Microsoft and I’m not going to take it anymore! And I’m not about to put out $200 per machine to upgrade.

An OS “upgrade” that requires me to move my data to an external drive, format, and cleanly install a new version? That is not an upgrade. That’s an absurdity. I haven’t owned a Windows computer since before XP came out, and every day that I get real work done on my computer instead of doing upgrades like the one described above and other Windows-related maintenance, I thank Apple.

The answer is Mac OSX. I switched a few years back, and have not regretted it. MS is so user unfriendly, and Mac, well it just works. It was more expensive, but a Mercedes costs more than a Hyundai. You get what you pay for.

“The answer is Mac OSX”
Yeah it’s great when you change hardware like Video or sound cards… oh, wait! You can’t do that on a Mac!
But wait, Macs are great for gaming support and the native game base is fantastic… oops! I guess that was Windows!
I just love how you can just replace items in your Mac when something breaks… wait, you have to take it to an Apple store and get gouged silly to have anything replaced, gotta love it!
At least they get to their bugs quickly… oh, I mean, Apple just ignores them and pretend they don’t exist….

Oh well, at least with an Apple you can fit in with the pretentious mocha crowd so you can feel “special”.

At work, I have XP on an IMac along with OS 10.5.7. I can have them both run at the same time wtih VMWare Fusion. I like this setup and my computer at home is a piece of junk. I realize that the Mac cost about $500 more for a similar machine but if I can run both operating systems it may be worth it. I can drag files from one environment to the other. Will I be able to run Windows 7 on a new Mac along with the new OS X Snow Leopard operating system Mac is coming out with this Fall?

We support a great deal of small businesses. They don’t want to upgrade. Most are on XP and are familiar with it. You can only type an email so fast and hitting the send button whether on XP, Vista or MAC basically takes the same time.

I can appreciate that things move on but why can’t Micro$oft leave the option for the end-user to keep the same exact (call it Classic) setup that they are use to? The costs associated for user education to get them to do the same tasks with a new platform is way more than the actual technical costs.

We are not a MAC business nor do we support them but that is one thing Apple does get right. Their interface is basically the same for years.

@Anna – I know! How dare evil microsoft offer an updated, improved modern operating system to consumers? …. and then charge for it?? Its outrageous!

Seriously, its one thing to stick to XP for economic reasons, or because you are tied to some piece of custom developed software that was written in 2002. But all these folks clinging to XP out of stubbornness or Apple ad induced Vista jitters need to snap out of it.

Just the search capabilities alone make it worth the upgrade to me. I am running windows 7 beta at home and XP at work and going back to XP is painful once you made the switch. Not to mention 7 is pretty.

I’ve been running Windows 7 (the preview version) for a couple of months. It’s fast, solid and clean. Hands down it blows XP away. The only questions you need to ask: can your hardware support it, and can your software run on it. I’m using it on an older Dell Optiplex with no problems. So far no software issues, either.

bob – i’m with you on the sarcastic view of apple products and they way they gouge their customers, who appear to convince themselves that there was never a problem in the first place. microsoft have a lot of faults, but they seem a lot more honest than apple.

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